4 killed as blast hits tourist bus in Egypt

Cairo: Four people were killed and 11 other people were injured on Friday when a bus was hit by a roadside bomb in Giza, Egypt, the Interior Ministry said.

It was reported that three Vietnamese tourists were killed and one was an Egyptian tourist guide.

Ten of the wounded were Vietnamese tourists and one was an Egyptian, a ministry statement said.

Police inspect the scene of a bus blast in Giza, Egypt, on Friday.
Image Credit: Reuters

The bus was hit by an explosion from an improvised device hidden near a wall on Marioutiya street at around 6:15 pm local time, it said.

The roadside explosion hit a tourist bus near the Giza pyramids.

The explosion occurred on Al Maryotiya Road, a long road off Al Haram Road, one of the most famous streets in Greater Cairo.

An Egyptian security source told the Guardian the bus had 14 people on board and an IED exploded as it approached. Reuters reported that the device was hidden near a wall on Marioutiya Street off Al Haram Road, one of the most famous streets in Greater Cairo.

Police forces and ambulances attended the scene, and the injured individuals were transferred to nearby hospitals.

Ahmed Samy, a tuk-tuk driver, said he saw the bus after the blast and and locals and drivers were helping the injured to get out. “One of the passengers was dead and was covered in blood,” he said.

No militant group has yet claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack. The most active group has been Daesh, which has been operating mainly in North Sinai. An Isis-linked group claimed responsibility for the explosion on the Russian plane.

Daesh also claimed responsibility for a January 2016 attack in Hurghada where two militants entered a hotel and stabbed three tourists. The Swede and two Austrians survived.

In February 2014, the militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which later pledged allegiance to Dsaesh claimed a bomb attack that ripped through a tourist bus on the Egyptian side of the Taba border crossing with Israel, killing four and injuring some 30 passengers.

Prior to the Russian plane explosion, the deadliest attack to target tourists took place in Luxor in 1997 when more than 60 people, the vast majority foreign tourists, were murdered by militants armed with guns and knives.

The Great Pyramids
and Sphinx of Giz
Image Credit: Rex Features

The prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, visited the injured at Al-Haram hospital. He told reporters that the bus had not followed the path it was supposed to take where it would have been secured by the police.

Tourism has been one of the main contributors to Egypt’s economy, contributing around 375bn Egyptian pounds to the economy (£16bn), or 11% of GDP, in 2017, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

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